(You don’t have to join DropBox to download– click “No Thanks” at the bottom of the pop-up screen.)

This winter I invited my workshop students to consider the spiritual practice of clearing out and listening in, to make space to hear inwardly what right action would rise up. In that spirit, I sat down one morning this week to get quiet and listen for inner guidance on whether I would attend the Women’s March in Albuquerque, and what message I would carry. Speaking out for human rights and care for the Earth is deeply important to me, but I wanted to listen beyond whether I should go and what I should say. With my limited energy and my particular gifts and skills, what would my inner wisdom know about the best way for me to respond in this moment?

After a while in the silence, I was surprised to remember a fantastic question my friend Sue asked me a couple of years ago. When I felt all heavy and stuck around something important, she wondered aloud, “What if you could only do something fun about this?” As her question rang again in my heart, I felt a new clarity rising: my political and social actions need to embody joy and goodness, not just anger and fear. Yes, I would go to the march– for the grown-up fun of it— for the chance to join others and lift my voice for justice because love and hope pull me forward, gladly. And with this joyful orientation and spiritual conviction, I would practice integrating the courage and fierceness I admire in dedicated non-violent activists.

So I played with words in my journal, then played with those words on my computer to make a sign that tried to say something about all that. You’ve seen the result here, and I’m delighted that some of you might also want to carry this message too.

This is the way I want to continue to practice– again and again– as I engage our political and social challenges: Center Down, Clear Out, Listen In, and Rise Up. (I have some art that goes with that, and I’ll do my best to get that photo up on the website soon.) My heart and my convictions worked together as I opened myself in the sacred silence, cleared out my shoulds, and let the right action and perspective rise up within me.

For now, I have my marching orders, literally, with sign in hand. Or as my students and I said this winter, these are our Rising Orders. There is much to heal, my friends. May you joyfully listen to your heart and wisdom to find what rises for you, too.

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If you’d like to carry this sign, hurrah! I welcome you to download the file and print it yourself locally (for non-commercial use only, please):